James Trott helps children with autism. He loves to write article about special education school. Read these article and get to know more about special schools.

Nov 6, 2015

Floortime Therapy — Maximizing a Child’s Potential

“In order to feel good about himself, a child must be successful in his own eyes, not just your eyes. Self-esteem is an inner feeling: sometimes it corresponds with outer reality, and sometimes it doesn’t.”- Dr. Stanely Greenspan

Dr. Greenspan’s DIR/Floortime model has helped many children with neuro developmental disorders but there are still a good number of people who may not be aware of the benefits of the floor time approach. These are the people who may have limited understanding of the concepts and strategies that compile this form of therapy.

Some parents may forget how to positively play with their kids because they are wrapped up in their busy professional or their social lives. They do not seem to have enough time to explore playtime with their kids.

The DIR or Developmental Individual Differences Relationship based model does not flow in an accustomed manner but enlightens a new pathway to harness the developmental needs of a child. People doubting the proficiency of the Floortime therapy are those who only pursue an “end result”. Their entire focus is on the end result — what is the score? Who won the debate? Who lost the game? We all tend to be so obsessed with the ‘end result’ that we actually have forgotten about ‘the process’.

Floortime is a cornerstone, an engine that drives the DIR model and derives the developmental process.Dr. Stanley Greenspan

Floortime therapy guides trainers, parents and educators through the DIR model and offer activities that children need since they have to initiate an activity and come with an idea of their own at the initiation of the process. The child has to sequence through different steps and then put them all together. Having the child as part of the complete process offers them opportunities to engage in the activity and spark their interest, further engaging them in the experience.

Floortime therapy, as part of DIR model is a pathway to reach a child’s developmental and interest levels through the following steps –Step 1 — Helping the child manage his/her behavior so that they are able to engage with the people around them.

Step 02 — encouraging the child’s interest in their surrounding so that they can learn how to distinguish insentient objects from people.

Step 03 — following the child’s lead to enter the circle of communication. Meeting them at their level so as to initiate the two-way interaction.

Step 05 — communicating thoughts and idea through symbolic media elements such as symbols and pictures.Step 06 — sequencing and bridging ideas to encourage emotional, social and logical reasoning.

Floortime therapy is not just an approach to help children with ADHD and other neuro developmental disorder but is an ongoing approach that helps parents and educators understand how their child wants people to relate to them.